In modern psychology, ostracism is the ignoring or rejection of a person by others. In general, such a definition already quite fully reflects the essence of the phenomenon. Today, ostracism is a fairly broad concept that can be applied to the entire spectrum of social relations. Wherever there is a relationship between people, there is to some extent the ignoring or exclusion of individuals. Thus, ostracism is what turns a person into a social outcast, a marginal. However, this concept has roots,
which are clearly visible.
Antique ostracism
The meanings of many terms came to modern European languages from ancient Greek. The ancient city-states gave the modern world a lot of political ideas and concepts. Primordial ostracism also belongs to this area. At the dawn of its existence, this concept also belonged purely to the political sphere and was a tool for maintaining democratic rule in policies. Traditionally, a number of city-states had a nationwide system of government, when the most important issues in the life of the city were decided by the nationwide assembly of its citizens (excluding women, foreigners and slaves) - the ekklesia. The same people's assembly elected peculiartemporary governing bodies. This procedure was a preventive tool to avoid the usurpation of power with
part of any citizen or group of people. Any citizen whose popularity or political power began to threaten the democratic principles of the policy could be ostracized. The procedure was carried out in January of each year. The chairmen of the Council of Five Hundred (a kind of parliament) regularly raised the question of the need for ostracism for public consideration. If the decision was approved, then the procedure itself was carried out in the spring of the same year. On a certain appointed day, each of the eligible citizens brought with them a shard (hence the name) inscribed with the name of the person they thought was a threat and should be expelled. The voting was secret. Each citizen entered the prepared space, protected from prying eyes, with a shard clutched in his hand, and put it in a special box. Follow-up
day the votes were counted. The one whose name was most often mentioned in the inscriptions had to settle all his affairs in the policy within ten days and leave it. The exile lasted, as a rule, ten years, although the period could be changed depending on how strong the threat from this person seemed. It was believed that during this period an influential person would lose his popularity, and upon his return he would no longer threaten the democratic foundations of the city. However, the exileswere deprived of neither the rights of citizenship, nor the land allotment (which every member of the community necessarily had), nor property. As a rule, they carried out exile in other policies of the peninsula, being non-citizens there - meteks. Returning to their hometown, they were restored in all their rights and received their property back.